Planned Parenthood Arizona joins others restarting abortions

By BOB CHRISTIE
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — Planned Parenthood Arizona has joined several other providers and restarted abortion care in the state, although it may only be temporary. Clinics stopped abortions in Arizona after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that women do not have a constitutional right to end a pregnancy. They shut down because of legal uncertainty over a pre-statehood law banning almost all abortions and a “personhood” law that they feared could be used to prosecute doctors and nurses. Planned Parenthood so far is only providing abortions in Tucson. At least three independent clinics are also doing abortions. A Tucson judge is deciding whether to allow the pre-statehood ban to be enforced, and a federal judge has blocked the “personhood” law.